Media Release

 

World First! Australian conquers the Great Wall

Australian adventurer Mark Scholinz has just completed a 4780km trek along the Great Wall of China, becoming the first person to successfully walk the entire continuous length of the Ming Dynasty Great Wall. What’s more he achieved this unsupported, in one attempt, by himself and carrying a pack that at times weighed in excess of 45kg!

Mark set off on his epic 9 month journey as a novel way to raise funds for Oxfam Australia in an endeavour to assist their efforts in addressing inequalities across the globe.

Mark battled against the elements enduring temperature extremes ranging from -15C to 45C, sandstorms, heat waves, snow and ice as he forged his way through desserts, icy rivers and mountains.

During his epic journey he experienced lengthy police interrogations, was detained by the military for trespassing, attacked by a swarm of bees, fell through a toilet and witnessed the tragedy of death.

“Without doubt the highlight of the trek was the kindness and generosity of villagers that had very little but gave so much. I couldn’t have succeeded without their help”.

“When I started the trek I assumed that it had been done before so becoming the first was never an objective. It was much later when I discovered that previous attempts had only partially completed the distance. For me the satisfaction comes from the adventure. My aim was always to promote the efforts of Oxfam and help combat poverty and inequality across the globe”.

“At the moment a bath, steak and beer sound pretty good to me. Since I don’t speak Chinese I’m also longing for some conversation. Over the past 9 months I can count the number of times that I’ve had a meaningful conversation on both hands”.